More recently, another elderly scientist was scheduled to give a paper
on the discovery of a lifetime and the word was out that his data were
the first in the world. He knew the hall would be packed with colleagues
from all over the globe. The night before he went over his data and
obtained an insight for a calculation to check validity. Before his eyes
the artifact appeared and the discovery disappeared. He presented his
results ending with the fact that the recent check proved that it was an
artifact. The anguish of the admission made him physically ill. He was
given a five-minute standing ovation.
Joseph Mastropaolo